By: Shaykh Husayn al-Khushaymi*
The messengers and prophets are among the manifestations of Allah's mercy; through them Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, willed to guide the human being away from loss and bewilderment in the life of this world. However advanced the stages of knowledge that the human being reaches, he remains in need of someone to guide him to the soundest path and to keep him from slipping into the abysses.
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Our Lord says: “It is He who sent to the unlettered [people] an apostle from among themselves, to recite to them His signs, to purify them, and to teach them the Book and wisdom, and earlier they had indeed been in manifest error.” (Qurʾan 62:2). So guidance is among the most prominent goals of the divine messages, and the noble verse points to the other state: “in manifest error” (Qurʾan 62:2), and that is embodied in rescuing the human being from error and in the shining of Allah's light and mercy upon him.
So what does guidance mean? And how do we obtain it?
Guidance (al-hudā) in the language, as it comes in Lisan al-ʿArab, is “the opposite of error (al-ḍalāl), and it is right direction (al-rashād) and indication”; thus of one whom Allah has directed aright it is said: Allah has guided him (hadāhu) to the correct path. But when the matter concerns a human being's directing his fellow human being, we do not say: (I guided him—hadaytuhu) or (so-and-so guided him—hadāhu fulān...); rather, we say: he directed him (arshadahu). The Noble Qurʾan has also made clear to us that guidance is something Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has reserved for Himself: it is from Him alone, and its source is one, from Him, Majestic and Exalted is He, through His Messenger and His Book, and nothing else, as our Lord says: “Say, ‘Indeed it is the guidance of Allah which is [true] guidance.’ And should you follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you will not have against Allah any guardian or helper.” (Qurʾan 2:120); and He, Exalted is He, also says: “It is not up to you to guide them; rather, it is Allah who guides whomever He wishes.” (Qurʾan 2:272).
Guidance is everything connected with Allah and the legislations and rulings that have issued from Him, which are such as to judge among people with justice, direct them to righteousness and keep them away from error and falsehood. The cause of the sending of the messengers to creation was nothing but that they judge among them with justice, purify their souls and return them to their innate nature (fiṭra) upon which Allah originated them, which is the affirmation of the oneness of the Creator, Majestic and Exalted is He; and that is Allah's guidance to the human being. We may sometimes believe that we attain things by ourselves or by our own planning, but in reality it is Allah's guidance to us: when someone loses the way and then finds a person to show him to it, that person is only an intermediary and a means that Allah has made subservient for the one who has lost his way; and likewise the one who discovers a particular matter does so only by Allah's guidance, through his intellect, which Allah has granted him. He, Blessed and Exalted is He, says: “It is He who made the stars for you, so that you may be guided by them in the darkness of land and sea. We have certainly elaborated the signs for a people who have knowledge.” (Qurʾan 6:97), and this is an indication that Allah's creation is among the factors of guidance, by His leave, Exalted is He—namely the stars, or the sun and the crescent moon, by which the human being is guided to the time. If the human being contemplated Allah's creation, he would be certain that everything in existence is connected with Him, Exalted is He, and that it is from Him, not from human beings; and this scientific progress, these inventions and discoveries, are nothing but from Him, Blessed and Exalted is He. We see the helplessness of the human being today, despite his development and progress, before the powers of Allah, the Exalted, and His decrees: we see, for example, that Japan stands helpless before the earthquakes and hurricanes that strike it from time to time, or the helplessness of the United States before the continuing economic crises!! whose root is the human being's distancing himself from Allah's guidance.
As for the way of obtaining guidance, it is everything directly connected with Allah, and everything that the Most Noble Prophet Muhammad (s) brought, and after him the guiding Imams (a). The Qurʾan is guidance for humanity: “Indeed this Quran guides to what is most upright, and gives the good news to the faithful who do righteous deeds that there is a great reward for them.” (Qurʾan 17:9). The Noble Qurʾan was the main cause of the guidance of humanity, and following it and holding fast to it ensures for the human being guidance away from error; likewise following the Messenger (s) and his Ahl al-Bayt (a), obedience to whom Allah has made obligatory upon us, for they are the interpreters of Allah's rulings and of His Book, and through them the system of guidance is completed; for they are, as our Most Noble Prophet (s) said: (We are the word of Godwariness, the path of guidance, the loftiest exemplar, the greatest proof and the firmest handle).
Accordingly, the human being must strive to hold fast to guidance and to seek it from its true source; and let us also know that Allah's guidance will not come except after the human being decides and acts, through holding fast to the Qurʾan and the Pure Progeny.
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* From Iraq
